Category Archives: Freedom

Image courtesy USN

PublishedMay 22, 2022 6:42 PM by The Maritime Executive

The U.S. Navy has commissioned the first of the six Freedom-class littoral combat ships that it intends to keep, USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul (LCS-21).

All previous vessels in the class have been nominatedfor early retirement in the Navy's latest budget proposal, including USS Freedom (deactivated), Fort Worth, Milwaukee, Detroit, Little Rock, Sioux City, Wichita, Billings, Indianapolis and St. Louis. According to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, the anti-submarine warfare sonar system for the class has failed to perform, and since it has been canceled, there is no need for the Navy to carry the operating cost for so many Freedom-class LCS.

Combined with savings from the retirement of Ticonderoga-class cruisers, removing legacy Freedom-class hulls would help save the Navy $3.6 billion in operating costs over five years - funds that the service could use on systems that "actually move the needle in a high end fight with an adversary like China," Gilday said in a recent congressional hearing.

However, there is no guarantee that Congress will allow the service to retire so many new ships, the youngest of which is less than two years old. Several high-ranking members of the House Defense Appropriations and Seapower subcommittees have objected strongly because the retirements would reduce the quantity of hulls in the fleet.

If Congress forbidsdecommissioning, the existing Freedom-class hulls would have to be repaired in order to attain their design speed. Due to a flawed bearing design in the drivetrain's complex gearbox, the previously-delivered Freedom-class vessels cannot sustain top speed; at present, the class isrestricted to a (relatively) lower pace of about 35 knots.

The Navy halted deliveries for the Freedom-class until the issue was fixed, and the brand new USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul was the testbed for the repair procedure. PEO Unmanned and Small Combatants commander Rear Adm. Casey Moton told Defense News that it took six months to removeunrelatedequipment, gainaccess to the gearbox, make the repair, put everything back together and conduct sea trials.

The repairs were successful, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul was accepted in November and commissioned on Saturday. Vice Admiral Scott Conn, USN, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Requirements and Capabilities, spoke at the ceremony. Thank you all for preparing LCS-21 for this day, said Conn. I recognize how special it is to be together for this milestone, and to spend this day bringing the newest ship in our fleet to life in this way. And more so, to do it in the state of her namesake cities is unique and special.

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US Navy Commissions the First Freedom-Class LCS it Plans to Keep - The Maritime Executive

I am supporting exceptional candidate Steven Bradley a Republican of Cascade, Iowa as our State Representative for House District 66 in our June 7 Primary election. Steve is an essential Republican leader of Iowans with his smart policy reforms on tax relief for individuals and business, ESAs and school choice opportunity, growth of our workforce in Iowa and addressing regulatory barriers in healthcare and industry.

In 2020 Steven Bradley easily ousted Andy McKean, a former Republican who switched to Democrat, from our District 58 seat. Voters could no longer trust Andy. In June 7, 2022s Primary election Steve will be running against Lee Hein who currently serves in District 96. Voting records do not lie and abortion will be an issue. Hein voted against the fetal heartbeat abortion ban and during this current term voted against HJR 5 that would add abortion neutrality language to Iowas Constitution. Bradley voted for that proposed amendment.

Steven has demonstrated he solidly votes Pro-Life, no ifs, ands or buts. As our Iowa State Representative Steven Bradley has shown Iowans his respect for our values and continues to listen and support us in keeping Iowa a great place to raise our families, run our businesses and live our lives with freedom and prosperity.

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Bradley will advance freedom, prosperity | Opinion | bellevueheraldleader.com - bellevueheraldleader.com

PEEP, by Danielle Blau. (Waywiser, paper, $17.) The winsome, intellectually probing poems in Blaus debut collection examine lived experience through the lens of myth, memory and rigorous philosophical inquiry, with one eye on the instant when, at this moments close, youll cross the border / into the moment after. Your shadows growing shorter.

36 VIEWS OF FUJI: Poems, by Kenton Wing Robinson. (Antrim House, paper, $25.) Robinsons title evokes Hokusai, and the form hes invented evokes haiku: Most of these poems contain three stanzas of three lines each, with frequent glances at nature. But as a whole they have a novelistic sweep, from childish wonder to an illicit affair to encroaching death.

LINE AND LIGHT: Poems, by Jeffrey Yang. (Graywolf, paper, $18.) Yangs fifth book takes the creative impulse itself as its subject, paying tribute to poetic forebears like Jean Valentine and Kamau Brathwaite, celebrating visionary cultures and supplementing the poems with drawings by the artist Kazumi Tanaka.

YOU CAN BE THE LAST LEAF: Selected Poems, by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat. Translated by Fady Joudah. (Milkweed, paper, $16.) The Palestinian poets U.S. debut gathers two decades of her intimate testimony about private life in a public war zone, where those who win by killing fewer children / are losers.

I KNOW WHATS BEST FOR YOU: Stories on Reproductive Freedom, edited by Shelly Oria. (McSweeneys, paper, $21.99.) In this collection that spans identity and genre, writers explore a breadth of experiences involving human reproduction, including pregnancy, surrogacy, and sterilization.

PUBLIC FACES, SECRET LIVES: A Queer History of the Womens Suffrage Movement, by Wendy L. Rouse. (NYU Press, $27.) Rouse, a historian, highlights the often unrecognized queer history of the womens suffrage movement and argues that queer suffragists challenged traditional notions of family, space and death both subtly and radically.

CALIFORNIA: An American History, by John Mack Faragher. (Yale University, $28.50.) A history of the most ecologically diverse and multicultural state in the country, from the conflict, turmoil and violence of Indigenous dispossession to the resistance of people like Archy Lee and Marilyn Greene.

A FACTOTUM IN THE BOOK TRADE, by Marius Kociejowski. (Biblioasis, paper, $18.95.) In this memoir, the Canadian poet and travel writer recounts his life in the antiquarian book business and his encounters with characters both real and fictional.

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Newly Published, From Palestinian Poetry to Stories on Reproductive Freedom - The New York Times

May 23, 2022

Ferdinand Marcos Jr.President-electRepublic of the PhilippinesMalacaang PalaceSan Miguel, ManilaPhilippines

Via email: [emailprotected]

Dear President-elect Marcos:

As you prepare to assume the presidency of the Philippines, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent non-governmental organization advocating for press freedom worldwide, is writing to draw attention and request your leadership in reversing your predecessors abusive acts and policies targeting independent media and journalists and restoring the Philippines once-proud standing as a regional bastion of press freedom.

In order to undo outgoing President Rodrigo Dutertes long campaign of intimidation and harassment of the press, CPJ urges you to give top priority to this urgent task. The legitimacy of your administration should be based on independently reported facts that allow for the kind of true public accountability that is the hallmark of strong democracies. The people of the Philippines deserve no less.

To start with, your administration should end the relentless persecution of journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa, a global beacon of press freedom. CPJ calls on your government to immediately drop all pending charges against Ressa, her colleagues, and the Rappler media group. These cases range from trumped-up tax charges to cyber libel accusations that threaten to shutter Rappler and carry potential prison penalties for those charged.

Prior to the Nobel, Ressa was honored with CPJs Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award for her courage against the Duterte governments persistent harassment and threat. As Ressa continues to carry the torch for press freedom globally, journalists worldwide and more than 80 organizations that form the Hold the Line Coalition are watching for Ressas fate. Your administration should take a decisive turn toward upholding press freedom by turning the page on your predecessors punitive actions and policies and allowing the news group to operate freely without fear of reprisal. That includes allowing access to Rappler reporter Lian Buan, who reports she was shoved and blocked by your security detail on the campaign trail and ignored by your spokesperson when asked questions.

We also strongly call on your government to restore the operating franchise of ABS-CBN, previously your nations largest TV news broadcaster, which the government ordered off the air. Duterte repeatedly threatened not to renew ABS-CBNs 25-year franchise agreement before Congress decided against its application. The independent news group continues to broadcast online, but the loss of its operating franchise has decimated its national television audience, forcing the station to significantly downsize operations.

We also urge your government to cease the red-tagging of journalists, the wrongful and dangerous labeling of reporters as supporters of the banned communist insurgency. Dutertes administration made red-tagging de facto government policy and employed the practice to threaten, harass, and jail journalists. Red-tagging is especially dangerous considering the Philippine militarys alleged role in extrajudicial killings and torture of accused communists.

In particular, we call on you to exercise your executive authority to drop the red tagging-related charges pending against journalist Frenchiemae Cumpio, who has been languishing behind bars for over two years on an illegal firearm charge that her colleagues and advocacy groups say was trumped up to silence her Eastern Vista news publications reporting on the Philippine militarys operations against communist rebels and alleged associated human rights abuses.

More broadly, we implore your government to prioritize ending the enduring culture of impunity in the killing of Filipino journalists. CPJs latest Impunity Index, a quantitative measure of the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of the population, shows the Philippines is persistently among the most dangerous places worldwide to be a journalist.

While we recognize the Duterte administrations creation of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security, a state agency tasked with resolving the cases of murdered reporters, the body has made only marginal progress in bringing the killers of journalists to full justice and at one juncture disingenuously declared an end of impunity in your country. Under your watch, the task forces mission should be reaffirmed and its work in solving media killings expedited.

As the Philippines newly elected leader, you have the mandate to reassert your countrys damaged democratic credentials by forthrightly promoting and protecting press freedom. We urge you to seize this important moment and state clearly from the outset that journalists will be free to report without fear of reprisal, intimidation, or imprisonment during your tenure.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Jodie Ginsberg, President

Committee to Protect Journalists

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CPJ calls on President-elect Marcos to protect press freedom in the Philippines - CPJ Press Freedom Online

Working millennials are known for being adaptable, dedicated, and creative individuals who embrace self-improvement through a balanced lifestyle. Their effectiveness in the workplace is greatly influenced by work-life balance. As a result, millennials maintain a healthy professional life while still making time for the things they care about most outside of work.

To pursue this lifestyle, millennials rely on their gadgets to explore and find their passions, such as content production, vlogging, photography, videography, and graphic design. Samsungs latest Galaxy M23 5G and M33 5G which have improved specifications and features, provide them the freedom to aim high and achieve more. Heres how:

Perfect cameras to unleash your skills in photography and videography

The Samsung Galaxy M23 5G enables millennials to effortlessly and vividly create memories with its triple-camera headlined by a 50MP main camera. It also comes with an 8MP ultra-wide camera, 2MP macro lens, plus an 8MP front camera perfect for flaunting OOTD and selfies to showcase their potential in photography and styling. The Galaxy M33 5G, on the other hand, features a 50MP main camera, 5MP ultra-wide camera, 2MP depth camera, 2MP macro lens, plus an 8MP front camera ideal for filming adventurous vlogs and reels as well as song covers and dance tutorial videos that exhibit passions with no limits.

Full control creation with its all-around performance

Young professionals often express their thoughts and ideas in a variety of ways. They explore each of their talents in order to unveil and produce their best possible content. The 5G connectivity of the Galaxy M23 5G and M33 5G, combined with RAM Plus Technology, improves high-level performance that is best for live streaming and online selling allowing them to take their crafts to new heights.

High-level viewing experience with its realistic display

Being a young professional can be tiring yet challenging. They need to be on top of the latest trends in order to produce relevant and creative content that will attract more viewers. Content viewing and browsing are important for discovering new and exciting ideas. They need their time to sit down, relax, and get entertained while learning. The Galaxy M23 5G and Galaxy M33 5Gs 6.6 FHD display and 120Hz refresh rate allow them to be limitless, providing a wonderful viewing experience and lag-free browsing.

Young professionals can be unstoppable and limitless when it comes to pursuing their passions with the help of the Samsung Galaxy M23 5G and Galaxy M33 5G.

The Galaxy M33 5G is available in Blue, Brown, and Green for a special discounted price of PHP 16,990 SRP, down from its original price of PHP 19,490 SRP. Meanwhile, the Galaxy M23 5G is available in Light Blue, Deep Green, and Orange Copper for PHP 15,490 SRP, down from its original price of PHP 17,990 SRP. Both units are available at a discounted price exclusively online until June 30, 2022.[1]

For more information about the Galaxy M23 5G and M33 5G, visit samsung.com/ph.

[1] DTI Fair Trade Permit No. FTEB-140321 Series of 2022

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Live the life you want, embrace your freedom with Samsung Galaxy M23 5G and M33 5G | BMPlus - BusinessMirror

The tools we need to achieve long-term stability for community providers and ensure better outcomes for rural Americans are available, and CMS can help us utilize them.

Nearly 14% of Americans live in rural communities. For those of us in health care who work with numbers all day, its important to constantly remind ourselves what these figures represent. Each person who makes up that 14% is a unique individual with a name, a face, a family, and a quality of life that should be better served by the health care system.

It is no secret that some of the greatest disparities in health care today exist for those who live in rural America, where geography, lack of infrastructure, and other social factors all contribute to drastically poorer health outcomes. Its an iniquitous reality underscored by a mortality rate thats 23% higher for people living in rural communities than those who live in urban communities. Individuals in rural communities deserve so much more.

Recently, CMS Rural Health Council released its Improving Health in Rural Communities 2021 report highlighting the multiple agency initiatives over the past year. I applaud CMS for its increased focus on the needs of rural communities and its continued commitment to improving the health and well-being of those who live in rural, frontier, tribal, and geographically isolated areas.

The CMS report outlined a number of important federal programs that have facilitated better access to care for rural Americans in recent years, including:

These initiatives demonstrate incredible progress made in rural care delivery and payment, but more must be done. Namely, we must also expand access to cellular-based remote patient monitoring (RPM) to empower individuals to take action in the management of their chronic conditions. Cellular-based RPM can play a critical role in reducing spending and improving outcomes for people in rural communities who struggle with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions; devices can detect dysrhythmia, for example, and alert providers and plans in real time, giving clinicians ample time to stage a lifesaving intervention.

For many patients, this technology can be the difference between life and death. This makes RPM absolutely essential for people who live in rural communities, where the nearest hospital may be tens of miles away. But despite its massive potential to revolutionize the way we approach preventive care, its minimal usage comes down to reimbursement. Change the payment models, and well incentivize providers to tap RPMs potential with millions of patients in these communities.

We must also do more to meet people where they are. It is a popular turn of phrase within health care and beyond, but I mean it quite literally: We need to broaden the experience of health and care delivery into the day-to-day routines of individuals. We need to bring services into homes and communities, where they are most convenient and accessible. Where do people shop? Where do they socialize? That is where health care must be.

The chain clinic model has achieved success in urban and suburban communities, but we cant count on this approach to work in rural America, where the population is geographically distributed and the nearest neighbormuch less the nearest hospitalmay be tens of miles away. If we want to reach people in rural communities within the routines of their week and begin bridging critical gaps in care, we must adopt hybrid models of care that encompass partnerships with trusted community providers, mobile clinicians, virtual care, and remote patient monitoring devices.

What Im describing is nothing short of a rearchitecting of rural health, but its whats needed to get quality care to the 14% of Americans who simply do not currently have access to it. The tools we need to achieve long-term stability for community providers and ensure better outcomes for rural Americans are available to us. I encourage CMS to help us use them.

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Contributor: Value-Based Care Will Provide the Freedom to Fix What's Broken in Rural Health - AJMC.com Managed Markets Network

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IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic ofZimbabwe

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Freedom Town Column: Ducky Day will be held June 25 - Conway Daily Sun

As the world continues to celebrate this years World Press Freedom Day, the highly volatile security situation in Nigeria presents a grave cause of worry for journalists, who, given the unsafe environment, have watched the difficulties attached to the practice of their profession multiply several folds.

The Federal Government that has an onerous responsibility to secure lives and property in the country must go beyond rhetoric in this regard and prove its commitment to press freedom.

The day provides an opportunity for journalists, civil society representatives, national authorities, academics and the broader public to discuss emerging challenges to press freedom and journalists safety, and to work together on identifying solutions.

The UN General Assembly proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCOs General Conference. Since then, on May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.

In commemorating it, media professionals have rightly taken stock and expressed concern that the free space is being compressed by strangulating laws and the absence of journalists safety leading to a decline in the civic space. Surely, if the trend continues, journalism may be endangered in Nigeria!

In particular, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) said that the regular attacks on journalists carrying out their legitimate editorial assignments by overzealous security agents, the current attempts to criminalise journalism practice in the country through obnoxious proposed laws, the suffocating economic environment and harsh political/economic policies of the Federal Government, have in the past few years, made it almost impossible for the media sector to carry out its constitutional responsibility for the benefit of the citizens.

The Guild observed that the inalienable right to access and disseminate information through an independent press is under attack, and called for an urgent need to protect the media, adding, that democracy is in danger when a free press is threatened.

There is no denying the fact, as enunciated by the NGEs President, Mustapha Isah and the General Secretary, Iyobosa Uwugiaren that the threat to media freedom in Nigeria is real; and the potential impact on the state of democracy in the country will be dangerous if the threat is not checked.

Considering the sacrifice that the press has gone through to bring about the countrys democracy, elected leaders in Nigeria should be press freedoms dependable protectors; not making attempts to stifle media voices through proposed legislation that, in the guise of checking journalists excesses, seek to criminalise journalism practice in the country. Nigerian journalists deserve a better deal in the discharge of their constitutional duties.

The media like the other three arms of government executive, legislature and judiciary has constitutional roles; and that is why it is referred to as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, and Nigerias watchman. Government thus has the duty of watching over the Realm, while the press keeps watching over other arms of government as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.

Section 22 of the 1999 constitution as amended, states that the press, radio and television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free touphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people while S.39 provides for freedom of expression which is safeguarded by the press.

Any political office holder, especially in a democracy, who arbitrarily or unjustly imposes any sanction on the press outside of the law is an enemy of the people, because it is not for nothing that the press is given a direct and expressly stipulated role in the Constitution to hold all other arms of government and officials accountable to the people who hired them all!

Political office holders in the country should recognise that the fiercest enemies of the countrys democracy are those attempting to gag the press and attacking journalists for carrying out their constitutional responsibilities.

Strangulating the press is killing one of the institutions that won democracy for Nigeria and constitute a violation of Sections 22 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. Again, not protecting journalists is a violation of an unwritten, but moral and legal duty to protect lives.

Unless and until this fact is recognised, democracy will not thrive, because the media plays a critical role in promoting good governance; ensuring optimal deployment of public resources; facilitating the protection of the rights of citizens, and ensuring that corrupt practices are exposed. Press freedom in Nigeria will only improve public trust and confidence in governance; hence deepening democracy in Nigeria.

So, for the government to attempt to cow the media through strangulating laws and not protecting journalists is a show of the absence of the rule of law; and for the duty bearers, it invalidates the constitutional oath sworn to upon assumption of office. Furthermore, it presents a picture that journalism in Nigeria may be under siege, which is not healthy for the nations democracy.

Therefore, every attempt to prevent the media from performing its constitutionally assigned role by any arm of government is condemnable. Political office holders have no business thinking they have more stakes in the success of Project Nigeria than the press, which has a long history in the Project having fought alongside nationalist leaders for independence and also fought for the revival of democracy in 1999!

Public officers should equally recognise that good governance requires opposing views; and governance is about the people, not about the interim occupant of the seat of power. They must recognise that their discomfort is the merit badge of a good press, especially when the press does its job truthfully and objectively.

There may indeed be cause for government officials to be concerned about some deficiencies in the performance of the press, including non-verification of some news which may turn out to be incorrect in part or in whole; but that is no reason to gag the institution, especially as there are enough provisions in the statutes to deal with journalists misdeeds or mistakes. The media has always been engaged in self-improvement measures. It is important that practitioners and stakeholders keep this up regularly, given the pressure of producing the news and the propensity for mistakes.

Media rights groups should remain resolute in the defence of press freedom and independent press in the country. Also, the law enforcement agencies should thoroughly investigate and prosecute all pending cases of attacks against journalists and cases of those who lost their lives in the line of duty. A threat to media is a threat to democracy.

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Lingering threat to press freedom Opinion The Guardian Nigeria News Nigeria and World News - Guardian Nigeria

Benjamin Franklin once wrote: Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.

Franklin originally wrote the quote in 1722. It was included in one of a series of letters that were published in his older brother James newspaper, The New-England Courant. All of the letters were printed under the fake name of a pretend widow named Silence Dogood.

On May 16, 2022, the Remarkable Books Facebook page published a quote-meme attributed to Benjamin Franklin with the words, Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech. In the past, our investigations of these kinds of history quotes often ended with a conclusion that they had been misattributed to the wrong person. However, in this case, the quote truly did come from Franklin.

Franklin wrote the quote about freedom of thought and freedom of speech around July 1722. At the time, he was 16 years old.

The words in the meme appeared in one of a series of letters published under the fake name of Silence Dogood. They were all printed in The New-England Courant, a newspaper that was founded by Franklins older brother, James.

The Museum of Hoaxes website reported that some men who read letters from Dogood offered to marry her. Of course, they had no idea she wasnt real, nor did they know it was Franklin doing all of the writing:

Between April and October 1722 a series of letters appeared in TheNew-England Courantwritten by a middle-aged widow who called herself Silence Dogood. In her correspondence she poked fun at various aspects of life in colonial America, such as the drunkenness of locals, religious hypocrisy, the persecution of women, the fashion for hoop petticoats, and particularly the pretensions of Harvard College.

Silence Dogoods letters became quite popular. Some of the male readers of the Courant were so taken with her that they offered to marry her. But unfortunately for these would-be suitors, Silence Dogood did not exist. She was the invention of sixteen year-old Benjamin Franklin, who was working at the time as an apprentice to his older brother, James, a Boston printer.

In sum, while the quote about freedom of thought and freedom of speech was originally credited to a fake name, it truly was originally written by Franklin.

Sources:

Founders Online: Silence Dogood, No. 8, 9 July 1722. http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0015.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by Albert H. Smyth, Macmillan, 1905.

Silence Dogood. Museum of Hoaxes, http://hoaxes.org/archive/permalink/silence_dogood.

. Wikipedia. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silence_Dogood&oldid=1086659679.

The New England Courant. USHistory.Org, https://www.ushistory.org/franklin/courant/.

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Did Ben Franklin Write About Freedom of Thought and Speech? - Snopes.com

The outcome of the primary election had to be a serious blow to the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF). Many of the politicians who have danced to its tune in recent years went down to defeat, including Janice McGeachin, Priscilla Giddings, Dorothy Moon, Branden Durst, Ron Nate, Karey Hanks and Chad Christensen.

The IFF has stoked and thrived upon divisive, confrontational politics in Idaho ever since the Republican Party closed its primary in 2012. Using a suspicious rating system, the organization has sought to establish a reputation as a kingmaker amongst Idaho legislative candidatesscore high on IFFs Freedom Index and win, score low and lose. The more extremist IFF legislation a candidate will support, the better the rating. Many legislators were afraid to vote on a bill until learning how IFF scored it.

This election had to be an eye opener for those legislators who believed that IFFs disapproval was the kiss of death. Several other organizations worked hard during this election cycle to show that candidates could think for themselves and overcome IFFs scorn at the polls. The one Im affiliated with, Take Back Idaho (TBI), endorsed a slate of candidates, including most of the statewide offices and 40 legislative positions.

Only one IFF-supported candidate, Raul Labrador, won a statewide office. Its preferred candidates lost for Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State and Superintendent of Public Instruction. IFF board member Bryan Smith lost his second bid for Congress.

The candidates endorsed by TBI were just the opposite of those who would blindly follow IFFs lead. They demonstrated a commitment to responsible, pragmatic representation, rather than inciting and profiting from hateful conflict. Of the 40 candidates TBI endorsed, 27 won and 13 lost. Some of the races were extremely closeScott Syme, a stellar person, lost to IFF friend Judy Boyle by just 6 votes.

Some of our losses were quite painful. Sen. Jim Woodward, a Navy veteran and excellent legislator, lost in a hate-filled, truth-deprived onslaught from his opponent.

The loss of Lawrence Wasden as attorney general will be felt by Idaho for years.

It is likely that IFFs opposition to Wasden played a part in the outcome, but a number of other dark-money groups targeted him. The Club for Growth spent almost $300,000 on a scurrilous ad campaign against Wasden, falsely claiming he was a RINO (Republican in name only). Wasdens problem was that he took his oath of office seriouslyto support the Idaho and U.S. Constitutions. When he was confronted with a situation where he could either serve his personal political interests by shading his legal opinions or honestly state the law as he was required by his oath to do, the rule of law always won. That takes true courage and dedication to his sacred duty. His detractors distorted his honest stands. In truth, Wasden was among the best AGs this State has had.

TBI intends to take an active part in each and every future primary election until the malevolent grip of extremist groups like IFF and Club for Growth is removed from our great State. Now that legislators and prospective candidates know that IFFs bark is much worse than its bite, that time may be closer than some think.

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017).

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The Idaho Freedom Foundation's bark is much worse than its bite - Idaho EdNews